St Mary's Church, Swormville

Consider This… I’ve been thinking about this last Pastor’s column for some time and I’ve been trying to figure out what words to leave you with. And try as I might, everything...

At this time of the year, many of us are celebrating (or we have celebrated at some point in our lives in our various social circles) a lot of graduations: Kindergarten, 8 th gra...

I know we’ve all had a lot to process over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve gotten behind on a few things amidst attending to the happenings of the transition both here at St. M...

My homilies all get posted on our parish website, but some had asked that this be made more widely available, and it is a good summary of all I’d like to share with you regarding ...

I wonder what was going on in the hearts of the disciples after Jesus’ ascension into heaven but before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. By this point, they knew that ...

We celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven this coming Thursday, May 18, 2023. Our Mass schedule for this Holy Day of Obligation is 5:00pm (Wednesday Vigil), 7am, 9am, and 7...

This 5 th Week of Easter we hear from the pastoral letter of St. Peter speaking to the early Christians and to all of us about our identity in Christ. Together with Him, we are ...

The readings for this weekend (including the daily reading on Monday) lend itself to being known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Some of the characteristics of t...

In this weekend’s Gospel, we hear the great story of the Road to Emmaus. The two disciples encounter Jesus on the road, who becomes their traveling companion, who speaks to them ...

Happy Easter! Let us not grow tired of saying this. The new life of the resurrection was not exhausted and all used up on that Easter morning but continues to unfold all around ...

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He has risen indeed. He has risen over sin and death, over darkness and gloom, over suffering, over betrayal, over loss, over grief, over anger, over...

This Holy Week starts out with such rejoicing, as we triumphantly cry out “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and as we wave palm branches expectantly… and...

Because she says it best, today’s column comes from Cheryl Hadley’s article, “The Scrutinies - What They Are and Why They Are Important .” If you are a cradle Catholic sitting in ...

In my prayer life, I have always enjoyed praying through the Stations of the Cross. A number of good devotions exist; indeed, we’ve used different ones here at St. Mary’s over th...

During my time in the seminary, we had various Field Education assignments in which we were commissioned to help out with various ministries throughout the Diocese. One of my pla...

Consider This… Day of Mercy This week, Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be hosting another Day of Mercy with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Eucharistic Adoration avail...

The readings for the first weekend of Lent always contain one of the Gospel passages that speaks of Jesus’ journey into the desert. As a whole, it sets the stage and tone for our...

It is exciting that, after a hiatus of a few years because of the pandemic, the Christ Renews His Parish Retreats are formally up and running again! Hundreds of parishioners ha...

Often enough, amid the many challenges and forces we come up against, we talk about putting our trust and our faith in God. In the readings of this weekend, it is instead Jesus w...

This will be my last column as your Pastor. I’ve struggled with what to write and I keep coming back to what it means to be a Pastor. On October 31, 2020, I was assigned as Admini...